This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
John W. Gardner, fully John William Gardner
When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: “Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know ho to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.
Creativity | Day | Light | Men |
Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
Insult |
Louis D. Brandeis, fully Louis Dembitz Brandeis
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
Fear | Justify | Men | Speech | Suppression |
The city as a center where, any day in any year, there may be a fresh encounter with a new talent, a keen mind or a gifted specialist - this is essential to the life of a country. To play this role in our lives a city must have a soul - a university, a great art or music school, a cathedral or a great mosque or temple, a great laboratory or scientific center, as well as the libraries and museums and galleries that bring past and present together. A city must be a place where groups of women and men are seeking and developing the highest things they know.
Art | Day | Life | Life | Men | Mind | Music | Past | Play | Present | Soul | Art |
Maimonides, given name Moses ben Maimon or Moshe ben Maimon, known as "Rambam" NULL
Prosperity, obtained through truth and righteousness, is built on a sure rock. Happiness derived from falsehood, injustice and lust, is built on sand.
Falsehood | Injustice | Injustice | Lust | Prosperity | Righteousness | Truth | Happiness |
Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then be fairly inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education.
Age | Character | Education | Family | Manners | Men | Opinion | Society | Society |
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
Moral codes have become necessary because evolution, in liberating humankind from complete dependence on instincts, has also made it possible for us to act with malice that no organism ruled by instincts alone could possess.
Dependence | Evolution | Malice | Moral codes |
Nāgārjuna, fully Acharya Nāgārjuna NULL
Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.
Dependence | Nature | Nothing |
Go out and get interested in the human problems that are everywhere around us. Help to improve the human lot. This service of love is perhaps the healthiest attitude in this world. It puts one into the main stream of the human race, where the profound problems re, and as one participates and gets involved and learns to know people and they him, one is loving and being loved and life becomes good - very good. Love is never a soft, genial attitude, indeed it is far from it. For example, when you really love the poor and underprivileged, you will get and fight for better conditions for all men. The fight is often against prejudice and entrenched greed, and it is no easy struggle to overcome these. But love is tough and never gives up as long as one of God’s children is the victim of injustice and mistreatment.
Better | Children | Example | God | Good | Greed | Human race | Injustice | Injustice | Life | Life | Love | Men | People | Prejudice | Problems | Race | Service | Struggle | Will | World | Victim |
He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.
All men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice.
Individual | Injustice | Injustice | Justice | Men |
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
Reinhold Niebuhr, fully Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
Capacity | Democracy | Inclination | Injustice | Injustice | Justice | Man |
Addictive spirituality creates dependence in the practitioner (frequently to authoritarian leaders and their communities), an avoidance of personal responsibility, and loss of individuality through social controls, such as fear, guilt, or greed for power or bliss. It also tends to suppress rational inquiry into the teachings. Healthy spirituality, on the other hand, supports the practitioner's freedom, autonomy, self-esteem, and social responsibility. It is based on experience, rather than belief or dogma; it does not create idols out of spiritual teachers; and it empowers students by emphasizing democratic forms of learning and teaching, rather than the authoritarian model that has dominated spiritual life for millennia.
Belief | Dependence | Dogma | Esteem | Experience | Fear | Freedom | Greed | Guilt | Individuality | Inquiry | Learning | Life | Life | Model | Power | Responsibility | Self | Self-esteem | Spirituality | Loss |